GAME ON DUDE’S PACIFIC CLASSIC TIME COULD GET FASTER

Del Mar to review analysis indicating that gelding may have set race record Sunday

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It turns out that Game On Dude’s performance Sunday in Del Mar’s $1 million TVG Pacific Classic was even more spectacular than first thought for the No. 1-ranked thoroughbred in the nation.

Bob Baffert’s 6-year-old gelding won the Pacific Classic by a record 8½ lengths, far outdistancing second-place Kettle Corn. Game On Dude’s romp perhaps was as thrilling as any of the previous 22 Pacific Classics. But the reported time was rather ordinary at 2 minutes, 0.69 seconds.

But hold everything. Detailed analysis Monday and Tuesday by several outlets showed that Game On Dude ran the 1¼ miles on the Polytrack either in a race-record time of 1:59.26, according to the Trakus timing system at Del Mar, or 1:59.74 (0.20 off Dullahan’s Pacific Classic record in 2012) according to Randy Moss of the Beyer Speed Figure team and creator of the Moss Pace Figures.

Moss did a frame-by-frame analysis comparing Sunday’s Pacific Classic with the 2012 race. Thus Game On Dude’s Beyer speed figure was raised to 113.

Tom Robbins, Del Mar’s racing secretary, said he took home a printout of the analysis and planned to meet today with Tim Read, Del Mar’s vice president of operations, and Russ Hudak, timer and morning-line oddsmaker for Del Mar.

“It didn’t seem right because Game On Dude won by 8½ lengths, yet the time was slower than last year’s,” Robbins said. “And the track was playing fast. We’re going to take a close look at it.”

It was a tough weekend for Del Mar, with Saturday’s 10th and final race ruled a no-contest because of a horse crashing into the gate, tripping open doors, and sending part of the field out in total chaos. That mishap cost Del Mar more than $1 million in handle, though the track still made more than $15 million in handle Saturday. That race will be made up as the third race Thursday, Robbins said.

But Del Mar’s weekend woes didn’t end there. Sunday’s Pacific Classic programs had to be changed when it was discovered Saturday night that the program’s glossy insert had the Classic field listed in alphabetical order and not by post-position draw and odds. For instance, Game On Dude was listed in the No. 7 post, not the No. 11, and odds were 6-1.

Some late-night and early-morning scrambling by Del Mar’s crew prevented an embarrassment and the wrong inserts going out. The program also had the wrong date on the front, Aug. 24 instead of Aug. 25, and the post time for the first race was listed as 2:05 p.m., when the first race went off at 1:05.

Robbins said the program error was “a mistake on multiple levels,” and that Del Mar will deal internally with ensuring that it doesn’t happen again.

“It kind of hit us all at once there Saturday night, with the no-contest race and then word about the programs,” Robbins said. “The news was like bang, bang.”